Saturday, March 23, 2019

Do us all a favor and homeschool your children

As Illinois prepares to pass a measure requiring LGBT history in public schools, the Christian right is having a shit fit. According to American Family Association, an anti-LGBT hate group:

Illinois lawmakers are advancing an education bill that, if passed, could make Christian parents reconsider keeping their children in public schools.

HB246 would require that all public school students be taught the "roles and contributions" of homosexuals and transgender individuals.

Pull them out. Pull them all out. Please do! Homeschool your kids or enroll them in Christian indoctrination academies! Chances are, those children are detrimental to the education of the majority of students given what they have “learned” from their enlightened parents.

Enter the hate group propagandist:

Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute warns there's little chance of defeating the bill and predicts Democrat Gov. Pritzker will sign it.

I can't imagine it being stopped,” she tells OneNewsNow. “We hope that there are some Democrats who will oppose this. I mean, we always hope. It would be hard to do this work if we didn't have any hope at all."

A mandatory history of homosexual “contributions” would naturally conflict with orthodox Christian teaching that homosexuality is sinful and against God’s design for mankind, marriage, and the family.

Ms. Higgins is unhinged and irrational. Furthermore, from a theological perspective she is incorrect. There really is no conflict. Homosexuality is not sinful. Gay sex is sinful.

LGBT people have made important contributions to society. Some were even people of faith. There are LGBT students and staff in public schools — what a shock. It is important for those children and their classmates to know that they are not defined or confined by their sexual orientation and gender identity.

There are LGBT students and staff in Christian schools too. They just happen to be in an unhealthy closet. For that matter, some of the kids who could get pulled out for homeschooling are LGBT as well. There are plenty of orthodox Christians who have gay or transgender children. Christians have the same proportion of LGBT children as everyone else.

Under such autocratic legislation, Higgins says Christian parents should consider pulling their children out of public schools, since a school teacher’s instructions conflict with the parent’s teachings in the home.

Meanwhile, Higgins says churches need to think seriously about how they can facilitate the exit of Christian children from government schools.

What exactly are these parents supposedly teaching these children at home? Judge people according to their sexuality? Establish the worth of people superficially? Suppose that gay or transgender fellow student gets straight “A”s and is a student leader? Then what? This is a fine example that they are setting for their children. Piety does not make bigotry and ignorance acceptable.

Just how insecure are those parents to be so terrified of the views held by a majority of the population?

Higgins would like to ensure that the next generation is as ignorant and bigoted as some of her generation. Even that fringe of Christians who still believe this gibberish is shrinking. More and more, people are coming to the correct understanding that sexuality is not a matter of choice. Regardless of the dogma it makes no more sense to be bigoted towards LGBT people than to be bigoted against people with red hair. (They once had their fling with that as well.)

The Christian bubble can only insulate them for so long. Eventually these children will be adults. They are going to have LGBT co-workers or, perhaps, an LGBT boss. How will they ever survive in the workplace? These parents might have gotten away with being bigots because it was socially acceptable. But times have changed. For example, gay men bring their husbands to the company picnic. I guess that they will have to skip that too.

So I repeat, if these parents are that crazy then they do us all a favor by pulling their children out of public school before they have a chance to infect others. Sexuality is not contagious but intolerance certainly is.